Pack The House For Meals On Wheels

Fayetteville’s Meals on Wheels program is needing a little help, and you can chip in by enjoying a spaghetti dinner and an old-fashioned gospel sing from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Fayetteville Senior Center, 945 S. College Ave., just north of Walker Park. If you’ve never been to the Senior Center, that will be a treat in itself. It’s a beautiful building with open spaces, lots of glass, native stone and great outdoor areas. So if you’re too young to have ventured there before, this a your chance to check it out. Ten dollars gets you dinner and music by local gospel groups The Ridgeviews and the Faulkner Singers. Many seniors are on a waiting list for meals, so enjoy yourself and help get meals to those in need. For details or to donate call 571-2920.

Springfest This Weekend

The rites of spring will be celebrated Saturday in Fayetteville as always, with the annual Dickson Street festival, Springfest. Now in its 28th year, Springfest kicks off at 6 a.m. with a pancake breakfast at Jose’s. The $5 all-you-can-eat breakfast runs until 10 a.m. and is a benefit for CALMM Autism Resource.

At 10 a.m. the festival ramps up with street vendors selling crafts and the obligatory festival food. There will be a kids’ area with activities and fun informational booths from the arts and sciences departments at the University of Arkansas. The bigger kids will enjoy music by the Joe Giles Band, Benjamin Del Shreve, Likelike, Nathan Aronowitz and Keith Nicholson. The trademark event of Springfest, the Bed Races, will be pitting the brawny as they run the street pushing the contraptions. The free event wraps up at 5 p.m.

GardenFest At Botanical Garden Of The Ozarks

Head to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in northeast Fayetteville on Saturday for the second annual GardenFest. From 8 a.m. to noon, 10 vendors, including the BGO gardeners, will hold a plant sale. There will be native plants, exotics like orchids, perennials, annuals, colorful baskets, herbs and trees. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. activities will range from live music to delicious food. The popular folk/Americana group Three Penny Acre began playing a few years ago at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market and soon moved onto bigger things. The band, Bayard Blain and Bernice and Bryan Hembree, have played several festivals and won awards at the Walnut Valley Festival and the 2009 NAMAs. They recently returned from a tour that took them to Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois. A new group, Flow Structure, composed of veteran players Richard Goodrum, Paul Burnham and Jeff Perkins will be filling the day with New Orleans style rhythm and blues. The Greenhouse Grille, Smiling Jacks’ and Shake’s Frozen Custard will be selling their delicious creations. And most of all, you can see the garden in its spring glory. The free event is a fundraiser for BGO.

Eaglesmith At GoodFolk

Steve Martin — yes the funny guy, the author and the musician — will be performing with his Grammy-winning band this week at the Walton Arts Center, but the show is sold out.

However, there are other great shows happening around town this week.

One of our all-time favorites, Canadian singer/songwriter Fred Eaglesmith, will play GoodFolk in Fayetteville on Tuesday night. Eaglesmith has played GoodFolk before and each time he visits the old Victorian house rocks like never before. Eaglesmith is ready to release a new album and is no doubt reeling from the success of the new Alan Jackson album, Freight Train, since Eaglesmith penned the title song.

Some people would pick Fred Eaglesmith over Steve Martin anyway. So go ahead, giveaway those Martin tickets and ante up the $17 for Fred and his sidekicks the Ginn Sisters. Call 521-1812 for tickets.

Those who missed the sold-out Pretty Lights show a few months ago are in luck. The Colorado-based electronic music powerhouse will play the Fayetteville Town Center on Friday night. Tickets are $23 and are available at georgesmajesticlounge.com.

Also hitting town from Colorado, will be bayou blues guitarist Spider Murphy and his band who will play Teatro Scarpino on Wednesday night.

There are vintage guitars and there are vintage guitar players, but not a lot of players who produce vintage guitar sounds. Spider Murphy is one of the few. The Berklee grad is adept at the tenor guitar and tenor banjo and is no newcomer to the scene. He played tenor banjo for Leon Redbone from 1980 until 1983. In the mid 80s he toured with Tom Waits as Waits’ opening act. Catch Murphy at Scarpino’s between his filming a segment of the History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” and an interview on New Orleans’ venerable WWOZ.